Tag: rock

Lou Reed | Perfect Day

“Lou Reed’s low-key, optimistic, and earnest ballad about spending a casual, but perfect day with his partner is arguably his most enduring,” (GoldRadioUK). “Given the nature of rock ‘n’ roll artists at the time, and his previous outlandish experimentalism with The Velvet Underground, ‘Perfect Day’ was a bit of an anomaly for Reed. With the media, Reed was notoriously obnoxious, obtuse, and twisted journalists in circles as to not reveal the true meaning behind his words.

Featuring on his David Bowie-produced 1972 album Transformer … Reed wrote the lyrics to ‘Perfect Day,’ the slow, piano-based balled which details a typically amorous day out with his partner … The song’s lyrics flit between seemingly simple, conventional devotion to his partner in ‘Oh, it’s such a perfect day, I’m glad I spent it with you,’ to Reed’s true feelings about himself: ‘You made me forget myself. I thought I was someone else, someone good.'”

After a verse in Bb minor, the chorus brings a shift to Bb major between 0:51 and 1:18; the pattern continues from there. The placement of this humble, earnest ballad as a double-A-side single with “Walk on the Wild Side,” the uptempo oddball love letter to the NYC world surrounding Andy Warhol’s Factory, likely caused more than a few cases of whiplash among listeners.

XTC | Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

“For decades, British art-rock chameleons XTC occupied an awkward space in the musical landscape; underappreciated songwriting geniuses too quirky for mainstream success but not edgy enough for alternative acceptance,” (LouderSound). “Slowly, over the years, this opinion changed. Dozens of artists began to list them among their songwriting inspirations, and their music became accepted as some of the most influential and innovative in rock’s history. Now, thanks to a glut of glorious sounding remasters courtesy of prog posterboy Steven Wilson, along with recent Sky documentary XTC: This Is Pop, XTC and their catalogue of incredible music have been propelled back into the public eye.”

“Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)” was included on XTC’s best-of compilation Waxworks (1982) and otherwise available only as a single. Andy Partridge, XTC’s lead vocalist and a principal songwriter, provided this capsule review for the album: “Spooky, unreal, dripping and unstable. The thrills and horrors of modern life in three-minute scenarios,” (Chalkhills.org). “Sgt. Rock” doesn’t inspire any affection from Partridge: ” … All the instruments in the track mesh nicely enough, but the lyrical sentiment, oh dear. It was supposed to be ironic, you know, nerdy comic fan imagines two-dimensional hero can help him with his unsuccessful chat-up technique. It did not work.”

But even a throwaway track, by XTC’s standards, still made for catchy college/indie radio material. The stiff guitar-driven swing somehow fits the mockingly martial lyrics. The track begins in F major but shifts to a bridge in Ab major between 2:10 and 2:27. The performers are miming to the studio track, not playing live, in this Top of the Pops-style performance.

Bryan Adams | Summer of ’69

“Bryan Adams’ smash hit ‘Summer of ‘69’ comes from the 1984 studio album Reckless,” (American Songwriter). “Shortly after its release, the single climbed to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped push Reckless to the #1 position on the Billboard 200 album chart in August 1985.  

‘I wanted to capture a special energy on the track—and nearly lost my team doing it. I basically fought with everyone until it became the way it is today. It wasn’t easy getting it there. I had no idea it would become such a classic,” admits Adams. ‘Originally the song had been called The Best Days of My Life, but we had always played around with the idea of writing a song about summertime. At one point while we were doing the demo, I just threw in the lyric It was the summer of ’69 and it stuck. And the guitar intro is about the only thing I can play, so that was pretty easy.'”

The tune is built in D major overall, with a bridge that shifts to F major (1:41 – 1:55) before an interlude returns us to the original key.

Pretenders | Mystery Achievement

“Like (the Clash album) London Calling, Pretenders came out in the U.K. in 1979 and here in the U.S. in 1980,” (Medialoper). “So while it’s technically a 1979 album, all of its impact — however you define that slippery term — came in 1980. Therefore, like London Calling, I really think of it as the first of the great albums of the 1980s, not the last of the great albums of the 1970s.

Which made sense: while both albums couldn’t have existed without punk rock, both albums were also signposts towards what was going to happen after punk rock, as punk rock became just one more bit of musical history upon which to draw upon when creating a sound … Kicking off with a simple, unstoppable double-time backbeat by Martin Chambers and a Pete Farndon bassline that was its own instant hook, ‘Mystery Achievement’ was hooky, dancey and fun as all hell … “

After this musical perpetual motion machine revs up in C# minor, driven by its iconic bass line, 1:22 brings an unconventional modulation to D major for the chorus. At 1:50, the key reverts to C# minor for the next verse, alternating back and forth through the rest of the tune.

Beatles | Now and Then

“This single feels like a super-human attempt to re-frame the group’s ending,” critic Robin Murray wrote in Clash magazine. “Instead of rancour, unity. Instead of solo competition, studio unity. Instead of losing his friends, finding their voices once more. Maybe it’s the sentimental Beatle-maniac in us, but ‘Now And Then’ feels like something beautiful, something to cherish.”

The track, originally written by John Lennon in 1977, was finally released earlier this month, with Lennon’s voice extracted from his original demo with audio restoration technology. It quickly shot up the charts in countries across the world, and is accompanied by a music video directed by Peter Jackson featuring never-before-seen footage of the group.

The song subtly switches between A minor on the verses and G major for the choruses, with the relative majors of each key being tonicized occasionally as well.

The Tubes | Let’s Make Some Noise

“… I was happy to hear the band cash in on their talent,” (Propography.com). (The band’s 1981 album) “The Completion Backward Principle benefits from good packaging (the band re-envisioned as a business, which wasn’t much of a stretch at this point) and great production from David Foster, who also co-wrote many of the songs. It isn’t a concept album … just a collection of songs that seem to take their inspiration from a bad day of TV programming (are you getting the sense they were watching too much television?): serial killers, giant women, amnesia.

Is The Completion Backward Principle a sellout? The answer probably depends on who you ask. Capitol didn’t bring in David Foster to make another convoluted concept album, yet The Tubes weren’t ready to become Toto 2.0 just yet. That said, lampooning the business side of the music business doesn’t change the fact that The Completion Backward Principle is (good) product.”

The album’s closing track, “Let’s Make Some Noise,” represents the glossiest New Wave/pop edge of the veteran band’s broad sonic range. The synth-heavy arrangement also makes good use of the band’s strong vocal firepower, with nearly all the personnel pitching in on backing vocals behind frontman Fee Waybill’s lead. After an intro and verse in D major, the verse shifts to C# minor (0:43). The pattern holds for verse 2 and chorus 2. At 2:04, the chorus shifts up a whole step to D# minor.

for Eric

This second video shows the band in the full simulated corporate regalia which was the centerpiece of the album’s concept. Album promotion via simulated industrial film(?) Why not?

Blood, Sweat + Tears | You’ve Made Me So Very Happy

Blood, Sweat and Tears, a jazz/rock 10-piece band from New York City, has curiously avoided a MotD debut to date — but that ends now! From Rolling Stone‘s 1969 review of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ eponymous second album by John Landau: “… a perfect example of the rock record that ‘tries harder.’ While at some points on the record the basic style of the group resembles rock and roll, more often the listener is being bombarded with non-rock arranging devices, non-rock solos, and non-rock material, all of which tells him that ‘something else’ is going. The obvious response is that we are hearing something new: rock being mixed with jazz, rock being mixed with soul, etc. Ultimately, someone at Columbia will come up with a name for it: ‘jazz-folk-soul-baroque-C&W-latin-show-tune-rock.’ And for once the hyphenated labeling would be appropriate because BS+T play hyphenated music: first they play folk, then they play jazz, then they play latin, etc. Styles exist in tangent on their record, but never merge into one.”

Landau continues his cutting criticisms of the band’s ambitious sound throughout the review. A criticism that can’t be made about the band, however, is that they were following any kind of well-established trend whatsoever. Instead, they seemed to be putting out feelers to see where the edges of stylistic possibility were — an exercise which can easily get awkward, and fast. But the very idea of the musical genre hyphenate was very much in the air during the late 1960s and early 1970s; in addition to jazz musicians adding rock elements to their sound, why shouldn’t a rock group work with some jazz elements? Perhaps further bolstering the band’s experimental nature: during its existence, no fewer than 160 musicians were part of the lineup!

“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,”written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Motown head Berry Gordy, was initially released in 1967 by Brenda Holloway. Re-released by BS+T, “it became one of BS+T’s biggest hits, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in April 1969,” (Billboard). “The song was kept from the number 1 spot by ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In’ by The 5th Dimension.” The tune was later covered by Cher, Liza Minnelli, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley Bassey, Gloria Estefan, and many others. After starting in Db major, a brief interlude (1:48-2:08) is in Gb major, followed by a multi-key instrumental journey of a bridge (2:08-2:48) and a return to the chorus (this time in D major). At 3:22, an outro with a much gentler groove and tempo ends the tune in G major.

Vanilla Fudge | You Keep Me Hangin’ On

“Released during the famous ‘summer of love’ in 1967, Vanilla Fudge’s (self-titled) debut offering was undoubtedly one of the more seminal psychedelic albums coming from America during the late sixties,” (ProgArchive). “The heavy, jam-oriented atmosphere … and the group’s original twist on well-known compositions grabbed the attention of fans and critics alike. Consisting solely of cover tunes and a few short interludes thrown in for good measure, Vanilla Fudge did not captivate listeners with original works of their own, but instead showed what they could do within the limits of famous pop songs from years past.

Musically, we’re dealing with psychedelic rock that isn’t too far away from what most bands in the genre were doing in 1966 and 1967. Although sidelong jams and increased experimentation hadn’t yet become the norm, heavy use of the Hammond organ and Beatles-influenced vocal melodies are plentiful here; Vanilla Fudge were also at the forefront of early hard rock, and some of the organ sections here clearly paved the way for heavy acts like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep.”

This live performance of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1968) may have broken all known records for grandstanding by an entire group: every member of the band is thrashing about as if he’s the lead player. But once you get past the overwrought visuals, this cover of The Supremes’ 1966 single is a quite a new re-interpretation of the original. The tune is largely in E minor, but shifts to the closely related key of C major during the short bridge (1:28 – 1:50) before reverting to the original key.

The original:

To Be With You | Mr. Big

“To Be With You” was the second single released from the American rock band Mr. Big’s 1991 album Lean Into It. AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine dubbed the song a “campfire singalong ballad,” with Billboard’s Larry Flick adding “headbangers get folky on this harmonious strummer.”

The track remained in the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, and is the final track on the album. It begins in E and detours into G at 2:27 for one chorus before returning to E at 2:51.